This article outlines some of the policy issues currently faced by research-based universities in the Netherlands. The focus is on four leading universities (University of Amsterdam: UvA; Free University of Amsterdam: VU; Leiden University; and Delft University of Technology: TUD). The author visited these institutions as part of a Study Tour undertaken by members of the Association of University Administrators (AUA) in November 2015. Following an introduction to Dutch Higher Education (HE) and the historical context, this article discusses: political issues (including the phasing out of maintenance grants and replacement by student loans, and the "occupation" in 2015 of a part of UvA), institutional partnership, academic research (including the status of PhD students), student admissions and the use of English by Dutch HE. Whilst many of the questions being considered in the Netherlands and the UK are similar, some of the answers are very different. In general, the UK has a more market-driven system that fosters competition rather than collaboration. Internationalisation of HE is a pervasive theme of this article. Perhaps because, in the UK, university leaders are so concerned to address the internationalisation of HE by looking beyond Europe, they seem to forget the advantages of working with European institutions. Co-operation within Europe is very much part of the internationalisation agenda for Dutch HE. The most important conclusion from the Study Tour is that all four universities see competitive advantage arising from collaborative partnership.